Patriarch 1962

Misch Kohn made this print called Patriarch, and it's a total head trip, literally. It’s all in black and white, and there’s this head shape, maybe of a father figure, composed of all these swirling, scribbly lines. I can imagine Kohn wrestling with the plate, scraping and carving, trying to get at something deep. It’s like he’s digging into the psyche of this patriarch, pulling out all the tangled thoughts and emotions. The lines are thick and thin, chaotic but controlled. It's an etching that feels like a drawing but it isn’t; it’s so physical, like sculpture. And it reminds me that we painters, etchers, and sculptors, we're all in this big conversation, riffing off each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what images can do. We are all trying to find new ways of seeing and feeling. Each mark, each gesture, is a little piece of that puzzle.